Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay claimed the efforts to strengthen intra-bloc trade after having achieved that intra-Mercosur trade in 2021 reached US$ 41,000 million, the highest value since 2014.
“We vindicate the efforts to strengthen intra-bloc trade, after having achieved that intra-Mercosur trade (Common Market of the South) in 2021 has reached 41,000 million dollars, the highest value since 2014,” said Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero after the meeting. , held at the Convention Center in the US city of Los Angeles, within the framework of the IX Summit of the Americas.
This number represents an increase of 42% compared to 2020 and 24% compared to 2019, and is mainly explained by the exchange of high value-added goods, Cafiero highlighted.
Likewise, the Chancellor added, the bloc’s commercial exchange with the rest of the world was also a record, reaching US$ 598,000 million in 2021.
Extra zone exports represented a record figure of US$ 339,000 million, growing 35% compared to 2020 and 26% compared to 2019.
“We will continue working from Mercosur seeking integration to improve the lives of our peoples,” said Cafiero, for whom “more than ever, we need a strong and supportive bloc, in order to strengthen an agenda of sustainable development with social justice.”
The Foreign Minister of Uruguay, Francisco Bustillo, could not join this meeting of foreign ministers because he was studying his speech to speak on behalf of the president of his country, Luis Lacalle Pou, absent from the summit due to coronavirus.
